June the 9th, 2022 - Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan has made the claim that the Croatian Government is actually lobbying against the reduction of harmful pesticides in the Belgian capital of Brussels, adding that she has been shocked by it.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Government, more precisely the Ministry of Agriculture, is allegedly directly lobbying in Brussels for the European Union (EU) to abandon the binding goals of reducing the use of chemical pesticides in food production. This is part of a letter sent on March the 16th, 2022, to the European Council, which, among others, is apparently signed by the Croatian Government.

The letter is in the possession of Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan, who, as the Eurosocialist rapporteur for the ''Field to Table'' strategy, is committed to reducing the use of chemical pesticides.

"I'm shocked and angry, on whose behalf is the Croatian Government lobbying against pesticide reduction?! On behalf of the citizens of Croatia, who are probably satisfied that bees are dying out and that traces of pesticides are ubiquitous on our food? I'd like to call on the Minister to comment on this situation and explain to the public why it isn't in their interest for food to be sprayed less with chemicals!'' MEP Biljana Borzan demanded.

The letter, allegedly signed by the Republic of Croatia and eleven other EU member states, disagrees with the bloc's overall goal of halving the use of chemical pesticides by the year 2030 through the ''Field to Table'' strategy.

In particular, they oppose the new law on the sustainable use of pesticides, which the European Commission (EC) is due to present on June the 22nd, 2022, and which Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan recently warned was in question due to fierce lobbying.

"It turns out that the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture is lobbying against environmental goals in Brussels, and at the same time, in Croatia, they're making life difficult for organic food producers by reducing subsidies and employing absurd regulations. When did we as a state decide to head in that direction? When the Parliament debated this, did the citizens vote for it? I recently conducted a public opinion poll on this topic and as many as 91 percent of respondents said they support reducing the use of pesticides, which shows that citizens' awareness of their impact on health and the environment is high,'' concluded Borzan on the matter.

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